


Picture Perfect

by JazzRaft



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Humor, M/M, Meet-Cute, Photography
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 14:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14082495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JazzRaft/pseuds/JazzRaft
Summary: "I was taking pictures in the park and you totally photobombed my shot and now I'm super pissed." In which, a disgruntled hobbyist meets the perfect model.





	Picture Perfect

“Damnit! Are you kidding me?”

The flock erupted in feather-soft thunder, dozens of pale blue wings rushing to take to the air. Noctis felt hard-pressed not to run out and chase their tail-feathers, screaming obscenities up towards the sky in their wake. Instead, he settled for screaming at the asshole who just ruined his perfect shot.

“What the hell? I’ve been sitting here for hours trying to get that on film! Are you blind?”

Photography really wasn’t Noct’s thing. He didn’t have the patience for it. Let alone the patience for strangers too dense to notice that they weren’t the only ones in the universe trying to enjoy their hobbies in the park.

He couldn’t sit still long enough to wait for the perfect shift of light to slant into a frame. He could just barely relax on the warm grass that day to convince the birds to trust his presence as harmless, and land long enough for a photo. And just when he’d had it perfect, just when he’d thought that maybe Prompto wasn’t crazy and there really was something magical worth pursuing in this whole thing, some idiot had to go and remind him why it sucked.

“Oh! Hey, I didn’t see you there. Sorry about that.”

“So you are blind then.”

Noctis almost wished that he was blind himself so he didn’t have to look at the guy’s stupid face. He had a crooked smile and eyes like a contact lens commercial. Noctis could have punched them right out of his head, he was so damn annoyed.

“I really am sorry, kid. Put up some caution flags next time, I’m sure I’ll see those.”

“Don’t call me ‘kid,’” Noctis grumbled. “Jerk.”

The stranger frowned, and Noctis suddenly remembered every single primetime special on snapped homicides he’d ever made the mistake of watching before bed with only week-old Cavaughnese take-out in his stomach. This guy didn’t look like he was one fleeting insult away from a psychotic break though – _they never did_ , the grim, late-night voice-over he’d grown so familiar with intoned. He was built and bronzed and sturdy as a park monument. He could probably break him in half, Noct thought with growing despair.

Before he could make the mad scramble to apologize and barter for the preservation of his overall well-being, the man’s frown lifted back up into a smile.

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “Dick move, that’s on me. Can I make it up to you somehow? Coffee? Bagel? Something?”

Noctis drew his camera to his chest, as if the delicate, handheld device could do anything by means of shielding him from… whatever that was. Was he watching too much TV, or was that a veiled attempt to take him off somewhere without any witnesses around to see his body dumped into a garbage can? The stranger misinterpreted his paranoia for something far more innocent, but no less mortifying by Noct’s standards.

The man laughed, ducked his head, and raised his hands in a gesture of submission, apologizing again. “Sorry. I swear that’s not a come on or anything. I just really feel bad about this.”

Noct’s eyes narrowed, questioning the sincerity behind that statement – if there was any at all. People in this city weren’t that generous. Insomnians could be just as cold and as hard as the buildings they rushed to work in every day. This man didn’t look the part of a cynical city boy, though. The tone of his skin, the definition in his arms, and the simplicity of his wardrobe – old jeans, work boots, loose blue tee – hinted him as more of a country boy. Or a construction worker. Maybe not a serial killer in the making after all.

“It’s, um, fine,” Noctis said, in very short syllables. “No big deal. Sorry, um… I should go.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yup.”

Nope. But at this point, he just wanted to give up and go home. He was tired and he was grass-stained and he was hungry – and he almost wanted to take the man up on that bagel offer – and he was defeated by the fickleness of a photographer’s fate once again. He was done with today. And he was being more paranoid than he had any right to be with a perfectly polite stranger accidentally photobombing his perfect bird scene merely by taking a leisurely stroll in a public park.

“Offer stands,” the stranger said. “If I ever see you again, that is. Name’s Nyx, by the way.”

Noctis didn’t see the point of exchanging names. He didn’t expect he would ever see this man again – he stubbornly denied his scary inner voice-over speculating that the stranger intended to see more of him whether he liked it or not. Still, he gave him his name anyway. Just to be courteous. He’d been eough of a dick to him already.

“Noct.”

Nyx smiled. “Maybe I’ll see you around, Noct. And I hope you get that shot.”

And that was that. Nyx slung his jacket over his shoulder and continued on his way, whistling aimlessly into the lush spring air. Noctis watched him go and insisted to himself that it was for the sole purpose of putting his neurotic ideas of potential murder to rest. Nyx didn’t look back, nothing sinister at all in his easy gait. If anything, he looked entirely too innocent, framed in the burgeoning green leaves of the trees canopied across the dirt path. The hard lines of his shoulders looked soft in the golden noon light, his dark hair dappled underneath the shade of the foliage.

“Idiot,” Noctis muttered to himself, feeling his face burning with shame.

What the hell was wrong with him? He shouldn’t have snapped like that. He shouldn’t have assumed the worst about a total stranger like that. Gods, if anyone could be accused of homicidal tendencies, he cringed to wonder what Nyx might be thinking of him.

Whatever. He couldn’t dwell on it. He doubted that Nyx would.

Noctis sighed and headed home, flipping forlornly through the pictures stored in his camera for something he might be able to use for his class. He’d taken a few landscapes while the scene was empty of pedestrians, a few leaves, a few flowers, mostly scenic shit. He supposed that he could make something of them work if he wanted to. Still life and all that.

He slowed his steps when he found the image he’d failed to capture. He’d pressed the shutter just a breath too late to get the scene of a sea of bluebirds cooing across the park grass. Instead, he caught something else.

A blur of blue bodies smudged each corner of the frame, and while he could barely see that they were birds, he could see the intruding subject even better. Nyx emerged from the center of the feathery cloud, his attention towards the distance, with a wistful smile on his face as he enjoyed the springtime sunshine. While he wasn’t looking directly at the lens, the blue feathers of the birds made the blue of his eyes that much more brilliant, that slant of light Noctis never had the patience to wait for gleaming in his gaze perfectly.

It was dynamic and idyllic, and it made the knots of shame and aggravation loosen in Noct’s shoulders. It was beautiful. Better than anything he could have taken on purpose and entirely in part of the model’s easy attitude. Noctis could see on film what he’d been too nerve-wracked to see right in front of him. Nyx had an honest face, nicked here and there with odd little tattoos, he noticed. He could see the softness of his sincerity in his smile. He bit his lip and looked ahead to the empty path.

Nyx was long gone by then. But he had his picture forever. It wouldn’t stop him from cursing himself for as long as he had it. Because, damnit, if his picture was that perfect, how amazing must the man himself really be.

**Author's Note:**

> I left this open for a sequel or a series or something, but I'm not quite sure yet if/what I'm going to do with it. In the meantime, hope you enjoy as a standalone!


End file.
